An immersion treatment system of this kind, in the specific form of an electrophoretic immersion coating system, is known from DE 101 03 837 B4. In this case, each transport carriage includes at least one pivotal arm which at one end is pivotal about a first axis of rotation that moves with the transport carriage and at the other end carries, by way of a second axis of rotation, the securing device to which the object to be coated is secured. The movement by means of which the vehicle body is immersed in the immersion bath in this case may be regarded as a superposition of two rotary movements about the two said axes of rotation and a translational linear movement in the horizontal direction. This known immersion coating system is capable of extremely broad variability in respect of the kinematic movements it can achieve, and a high degree of flexibility. However, this has to be obtained at the expense of a certain complexity in the apparatus, since the different structural elements that carry the securing device and hence the object to be coated are subject to relatively high loading.
An earlier immersion coating system is described in DE 196 41 048 C2. In this case, the conveying device is constructed such that the objects to be treated are immersed in the baths and raised out of them again with the superposition of a purely translational movement and a purely rotary movement about an axis which is aligned perpendicular to the direction of transport. Here, the axis of rotation must lie relatively far outside the contour of the vehicle body and hence far from the centre of gravity thereof. In the case of objects to be coated which have considerable weight, very complex mounting frames are required here since the forces produced are large. Moreover, only a single kinematic arrangement is possible when the objects are immersed in and emerge from the bath.
The present invention is directed to resolving these and other matters.